Against traditions
by Svona
Summary: Charlotte never wanted to visit a wizard school. Her parents supported her in this wish, as they like to have her little girl around and homeschooling is allowed for wizards in Germany. So she had a great time on a totally normal school, bevor her grandma decided to send her to Hogwarts for one year. A year abroad will widen her horizon for sure.
1. Chapter 1

An adventure in English

It was my grandma's idea, I am sure it was. She never actually said it, but there was this smile she gave me, when I waved her goodbye at the airport. For me it said something like: 'This will be great for you.' Probably she was just wanting to say goodbye and I was the only girl on earth seeing this message in her smile.

It might be, that I am just searching for someone to have planed this, and as my mom does not even plan her shopping and my dad does not get as far as finding his shoes, it must have been my grandma.

Quite sad, that this is still the main thing I am wondering about while waiting for the train. The Hogwarts Express to be at least clear in this pointe. It would have been no problem to take a flight to a nearer city, but I guess it's kind of a tradition to go by train. I hate the British traditions, actually I hate every British thing at the moment.

Well not only things also the strange woman who is staring at me like I'm something wired in her soup. I place my backpack on the ground and spend a moment searching for my mobile phone.

There it is. There is no cell coverage of course, but I did never had messages when I used it on the bus stop, ether. So well, why not. At least it looks as if I have got a couple of friends texting me.

"Charge me on. Turn me one." I start singing, a bad habit, but it usually sing when I am nervous. "I love it when you use me all night long."

"Voice massage?" A dark-haired boy looks at me. Great. I get a stalker bevor even entering Hogwarts.

"Not actually." I smiled but it was that sort of grandma smile that says: Go away.

"Where you speaking to me, then?" Good, what would he have said if I had done my sexy smile?

"No, I was singing."

Even if singing is a word that does not quite fit to the sounds I normally make, by repeating the lyrics of a song.

"Well, then", he grinned. "Singing to me?"

"Andy!" a girl runes toward us. Had I asked anyone for friends? Not jet I'd say, not by singing to my phone.

The girl stopes and tries to speak, but she should do more sport for that business.

"I was singing to my phone." Just to make that point.

"Your phone?"

"Yes … It's not as wired as singing to running water under the shower. At least I'll see my phone again."

"Never heard that song", he said as if he starts to like this conservation.

"Not my fault."

The girl looked to the boy and than to me, as if wondering where she did see me bevor.

"You are right." I say, smiling. "You don't know me. It's fine with me."

"I am Liliane. That's Andy."

"Nice to meet you." Sounds like a good sentence in my ears, something we learned in school. Anyways they do not seem to get the main message I am trying to put in the English subtext. We never learned that in school.

"I'm Charlotte."

In this moment we have to stop or conversation to enter the train. Here are thousands of students and owls and parents and they are all going to the train, but for some reason Andy and Lilian have no trouble to stay with me.

"So what was that song?" We sit down and the train starts moving with a scary noise and an even scarier shiver.

"James Blunt." I put my phone away and stare out of the window. Noting interesting to see anyways, but at least better than everything inside.

"Never heard of him."

I did not stop to smile to the trees outside, as if they were as interesting as a new Sherlock season on Netflix.

"You probably heard 'You're beautiful'. Most people hate it."

"He's not that Muggle guy. Is he?"

My eyes flitter to his face for a second. "I guess he is a Muggle. Never mind."

"I don't listen to Muggle Music. It's rubbish."

I did not ask, so I do not have to answer. Maybe, my mom would say something different.

"Where are you from?" Lilians eyes were fixed on me and I started to feel like one of those Guinea pigs in an animal store.

"Bonn."

"Gone? Well I guessed that you are gone somewhere."

How interesting these trees are. They are the prettiest trees I have ever seen.

"It's a city. Bonn. In Germany."

"Germany." Andy looks shocked. "That says a lot."

That was not a question so I am not supposed to answer.

"Why are you not on Falkenstein. It's your school isn't it?", Lilian askes.

"Never been there."

"So you did never go to school. And you are …"

"Sixteen." Not a question but necessaire to avoid something horrible like being guessed on thirteen or twelve.

"Well and you never visited a school?"

"I have been on a totally normal German school. It was wonderful."

"Normal?" Andys voice sounds as if he never heard that word bevor.

"Yap. Normal."

"You can speak German than?"

'Nope. I only speak bad English', I want to answer, but I changed my mind in the last second.

"Klar, doch."


	2. Chapter 2

Of course I had seen pictures of Hogwarts, actually paintings, as most technical devices (like cameras) don't do a great job around Hogwarts.

Anyways I have to confess that there was this short moment in which I could do nothing else than staring at the castle. Countless windows, countless towers, a dark lake … I hate lakes, indeed I hate water. Well not under the shower or as rain, but everything bigger than a paddle scares me.

"Charlotte Bergknecht?", a small woman with clear blue eyes waved at me. Two girls and one boy in my age stand beside her.

"Charly's enough." I say when I reach them.

The women raises an eyebrow. "I am your teacher Miss Bergknecht. Charly is definitely not enough."

Then she should spend some hours learning to pronounce it, I think, but of course I do not say this. Instead I smile. "Maybe you try. My teachers at home had no problem."

"And you are here to learn about an other culture, aren't you?"

Well, actually… but who cares. I nod again.

"I'm Chloé", one of the girls says in the growing silence. "Nice to meet you."

"You're from France?"

"Beauxbatons." Chloé answers smiling.

"That's in France. Isn't it?"

The three look at me in disbelieve. Did they never learned about sarcasm?

"You will have to go in jet", or little professor says. "The Sorting Hat will tell you were you sit."

"The Sorting Hat. Honestly? We are not eleven?!" Is this true? I hope not, I will not let a hat decide who I'm supposed to be.

"What did you think?", Chloé asks and I don't have an answer.

I bite my tongue while this sorting hat starts singing and everyone seems so to be thrown away by his words. He did not even meet the pitches, there are millions of great singers out there, why does this hat has to have a voice that sounds like he looks?

I am still thinking about the concerts I will not be able to go to in the coming year, as the Sorting Hat shouts my name. At least he can pronounce it.

Stepping forward I get the feeling that everyone is looking at me. I wave at them and smile, but they do not do me the favor to laugh.

The hat is heavier than it looks and I have to calm myself as I sit down on this silly chair.

'Hi, dear' the hats voice says in my head.

'Hi, hat.' I think back. 'I am not going to make anything out of what you say. I do already know who I am. So just put me in a house you need someone for.'

The hat laughs in my ears.

'It's brave to speak to me like this. I would say.'

'I am not brave, I am afraid of the pool of one of our neighbors and the dog of the other one. Oh and I am afraid of my best friends sister, and she's only five.'

'Everyone has something he fears, even the bravest.'

'I'm not brave. I would not be here, if I would have been brave enough to say no to my family' I think to myself and for a moment I forget the hat.

'Then …'

'Just two more thinks. I am not clever either or selfless.'

'There are people you would do anything for', the hat commend.

'Just because **I** would be nothing without them.' I recommend quickly. 'Just say Slytherin. This is taking too long anyways.'

'Brave enough to recognize that little dark part of herself' the hat says calmly. 'That's definitely a **GRYFFINDOR!** '

"No, no, no!" I shout out. "I am not brave! Please this is a mistake. I am not what he says!"

I look to the teachers table and my eyes meet those of an elderly woman. Minerva McGonagall, as I know. Bevor I can go on she smiles at me and then stands up in one smooth move.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course I am sure! I am afraid of dogs and … spiders. I hate them. I can't even phone someone without being afraid to blame myself."

Now some of the students start to laugh, but they stop as McGonagall lets her eyes wander through the room.

"Where do you want to go then?"

"Slytherin." I answer. "I am not selfless, or smart. And you don't have a house for brainless, blond girls. Have you?"

"Well, then." McGonagall says. "I believe you know where to sit down."

It takes a moment but then the Slytherins start to get up and applaud.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as I reach the Slytherin table they start to shout at me.

"Hey, over here! We've got a free place here!", that's a dark-haired boy, a perfect if I recognize his badge right.

"Hi." I am unsure what to say. "Nice to meet you."

He smiles at me. "I'm Howard. It's an honor to have you in our house."

"Thank you."

"And you are a Bergknecht? Are you relative to Gottfried Bergknecht?"

"He's my great-grandfather, but I never meet him." I am unsure what to make out of his interest. "Why do you ask?"

"Well my grandpa meet him in the war. He's dead know", he answers as if he blames himself for his old grandparents.

"The second world war?", I ask and he nods. "Always said that Bergknecht saved his life. My grandpa was a prisoner, somewhere in southern Germany."

"Uh.. I don't know much about the war."

"Why not?"

I shake my head. "Don't know. It's a quite difficult subject in Germany. We mostly learn that it was wrong to kill those Jews."

"But that has nothing to do with the war", a girl comments from my other side. "I am Eleonore, by the way. Elly for you."

"Thanks. I know that, but well I guess it better define yourself as Jew killers, than having nothing to define your nation with . At least the Muggles seem to think so, and I have been on one of their schools. Falkenstein is not that good, so my parents taught me at home."

"I heard that Falkenstein is rubbish. Why didn't you come here earlier?"

"I have friends and family at home. Never liked the idea of a boarding school."

"You will love it here", Howard promise me and in this moment tones of food appear on the tables.

"I am starting to believe it", I say smiling.

The food is amazing I spend a couple of minutes just trying to decide what to eat. Finally Howard placed a couple of potatoes on my plate. "At some point the dinner will end, you better start eating."

"Thanks. It's just …" I stop and look around me. "A bit to much."

"Obviously. Never mind, everyone feels so."

"I am flashed whenever I come back." Elly says. "It's just amazing here. And I live in a great house as well, but I believe that Hogwarts is the most gorgeous castle in the world."

"Don't let that hear one of those Beauxbatons." Howard says smiling. "They are all in Gryffindor and Ravenclow aren't they?"

"Sure they are", a boy from the other side of the table says. "I am just glad that you are here. No one needs those Gryffindors."

"Well, if you are looking for a Prince Charming you will probably find him there", Elly says laughing.

"Never dreamed of one", I say and smile at Elly, bevor I recognize that Howard is looking at me.

I turn around. "Did I say something wrong? If so, just believe me that I wanted to say something else and just mixed up my vocabulary."

"It's all fine", he says but there is something in his eyes that I can't understand.

We do not stop talking until McGonagall gets up about an hour later.

"Just let me use this moment to great you all back in Hogwarts." She looks at us and smiles in hundreds of faces that glow in the shine of even more candles.

"Let me assure you that you will have a lot to learn in this year, and that there will of course be interesting activities for everyone. We will have some more Quidditch matches this year, as we will found a team of or guest students."

I stop breathing for a moment. I will not play Quidditch. I will not fly a broom anyways, my cousin broke his arm on one.

"Oh, no, no, no", Elly whispers next to me. "We need you for our team."

"I don't know the rules anyways." I whisper back.

"You will learn fast."

McGonagall ends her speech and we can get up to go to bad.

"We are not enough to build a Quidditch team", I say looking at Elly.

"But there are some Americans coming next week. They had some problems with their flight, I guess. And we have six pupils from Ljóshalla, they have similar houses, so they did not need to be sorted."

"You do not know much about this exchange project. Do you?", Howard askes.

"Well ..." I do not quite know what to say, I had read the small pamphlet my father gave me, but I was tired so I forgot most of it.

"Never mind" Howard says and lays an arm around my shoulders. "We will take care for you. Make sure that you are not bullied by Gryffindors or something."

I flush and do not know what to say so I just nod and finally say "Thank you."


End file.
